Sample Solidarity Letter:

Release Tian Xi, Chinese HIV/AIDS Activist.

Adopted from letter sent to UNAIDS by Treatment Action Campaign.
Written by volunteers at the China Aids Solidarity Network.

Date

Dear [name]

We are writing to urge you to press for the immediate release of Chinese AIDS activist Tian Xi, and to urge
you to demand that China establish a national compensation fund for people infected with HIV through
blood sales and hospital blood transfusions.

Tian Xi is 23 years old. He is HIV positive and was infected with HIV as a child as a result of a blood
transfusion at the time when thousands of people in Henan and other provinces were infected with HIV
through state-sponsored blood selling programs in the 1990s.

For the last five years Tian Xi has been campaigning for compensation for himself and others, as well as
for the Chinese government to admit its culpability in the blood scandal and hold those directly responsible
to account. Tian Xi’s crusade has drawn the ire of the Chinese authorities and he has been frequently
harassed and detained. He has currently been detained since August 2010 and is still awaiting a decision
from his court trial in September.

The charge of “suspicion of intentional destruction to property” arises because Tian Xi appears to have
been lured back to Henan with an official offer of trying to resolve his complaints. However when he got
there he was refused meetings and in a fit of anger broke several minor objects in a hospital office where he
had gone to meet the hospital director and collect his ARV medicine.

Tian Xi and other activists’ frustration arises from the fact that Henan provincial courts refuse to accept any
lawsuits relating to HIV, leaving victims of the disaster with no recourse except petitioning. Although the
Chinese authorities say that he is being charged on ordinary criminal grounds – “suspicion of intentional
destruction of property” – it is obvious from the circumstances surrounding this case, Tian Xi’s
communications with various organizations, and the documents he obtained from township officials
ordering his detention, that he was arrested because of his ongoing and persistent HIV/AIDS petitioning,
not because of the hospital incident.

We call on your agency to issue statements calling for his immediate release and for compensation for the
thousands infected with HIV through the contaminated blood supply.

Sincerely,

Name.

Send this setter to:

UNAIDS

Mr. Michel Sidibé

Executive Director UNAIDS
20, Avenue Appia
CH-1211 Geneva 27
Switzerland
Email: sidibem@unaids.org

Mr. Mark Stirling

UNAIDS China Country Coordinator
2-8-1, Tayuan Diplomatic Office Building
14, Liangmahe Nanlu, Dongwai Dajie
Beijing, 100600
China
Email: Stirlingm@unaids.org

UNDP
Mr. Subinay Nandy
UNDP China Country Coordinator
2 Liangmahe Nanlu
Beijing 100600
China
Email: subinay.nandy@undp.org

Ms. Helen Clark

UNDP Administrator
One United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
Email: helen.clark@undp.org

UNICEF China
Dr. Yin Yin New
UNICEF Representative China
UNICEF Office for China
#12 Sanlitun Road
Beijing 100600
China
Email: beijing@unicef.org

Anthony Lake
Executive Director
UNICEF House
3 United Nations Plaza
New York, New York 10017
U.S.A.
Email: alake@unicef.org

UNFPA
Ms. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid
Executive Director
605 Third Ave
New York, NY 10158

WHO
Dr. Michael O’Leary
Representative WHO China Office
401 Dongwai Diplomatic Office Building
No. 23 Dongzhimenwai Dajie
Chaoyang District
Beijing 100600, PR China
Email: who@chn.wpro.who.int

The Ford Foundation

Mr. John Fitzgerald
Beijing Office Representative
International Club Office Building
Suite 501
Jianguomenwai Dajie No. 21
Beijing 100020
China
Email: ford-beijing@fordfoundation.org

Global Fund
Dr. Michel Kazatchkine
Executive Director
Geneva Secretariat
Chemin Blandonnet 8
1214 Vernier-Genève
Switzerland
Email: michel.kazatchkine@theglobalfund.org

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Mr. Ray Yip
Chief Representative
1901 Tower B, Ping An International Financial Center
No. 1-3 Xinyuan South Road, Chaoyang District
Beijing 100027
China
Email: ray.yip@gatesfoundation.org

USAID
Rajiv Shah
Administrator
U.S. Agency for International Development
Ronald Reagan Building
Washington, D.C. 20523